Bill Keach reviews Mark Steven’s book “Class War: A Literary History”, a wide-ranging account of uprisings of oppressed classes.
Category: Culture & History
review
It Might Have Happened Here
Wayne Price reviews Rachel Maddow’s book on US fascism, which lacks a critical perspective on capitalist anti-communism as the cause of fascism.
Culture Wars, Nationalism, and the Politics of History
Daniel Johnson analyzes struggles over historical narratives in the US, and calls for renewal of history from below, against the right-wing censorship.
Remembering Shays’ Rebellion
The Battle Over Debt and Democracy in Post-Revolutionary America
This August marks the two hundred thirty eighth anniversary of Shays’ Rebellion, an uprising of small-holding farmers and Revolutionary War veterans that shook the foundations of the young American Republic.
review
Unravelling “Arrythmia”
Jonas Marvin reviews Alexander Billet’s book “Shake the City,” which explores the role of music in social movements.
From The Mass Strike, The Political Party, and the Trade Unions
In this classic work, Rosa Luxemburg situates mass strikes at the center of revolutionary political dynamics.
review
Revisiting Rosa Luxemburg’s Writings on the 1905 Russian Revolution
Robert Ovetz describes the significance of a new collection of Rosa Luxemburg’s writings on revolution from 1906 to 1909, recently published in English.
The History Wars and the New Red Scare
The views of Left and Right differ regarding the study of history. For the Right it is largely an exercise in building identity and loyalty, an exploration of what makes one’s nation and race, and therefore one’s self, special. For . . .
The Jewish Labor Bund’s Medem Sanatorium: 1926-1942
Children at the Medem Sanatorium reading the Bund’s daily newspaper, the Folkstsaytung
Secularism and enlightenment swept through the insular world of East European Jewry, starting in the middle of the 19th century, and ending in the 20th with the . . .
Old Bolshevism, New Bolshevism, and Lenin’s April Theses
Karl Kautsky as Theorist of Permanent Revolution?
John Marot defends the interpretation of Lenin’s April Theses as the pivotal turning point for the Bolsheviks, countering Lars Lih’s and Eric Blanc’s historical narrative.
Revisiting Their Morals and Ours
A critical examination of Trotsky’s evolving views on revolutionary morality and democracy in revolutionary movements.
When Sri Lanka Operated Workers’ Councils
The history of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party in Sri Lanka and its leading role in establishing workers’ councils across the public sector in the 1970s.
A Century Since the March on Rome
Fascism, Past and Present
Historian Stéfanie Prezioso traces the rise of revisionist historiography on Italian fascism.
Review of Communists in Closets
Review of Bettina Aptheker’s recent book Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s
Of Course the Allies Should Have Bombed Auschwitz
Bombing Auschwitz would not have diverted significantly from the actual war effort. It would have saved thousands or tens of thousands of lives and would have let the world know that Allied moral outrage was more than feel-good propaganda.
review
A New Human History?
A critical examination of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book, The Dawn of Everything.
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